A major upgrade of health facilities in west Hertfordshire has moved a step closer following the approval of redevelopment plans for Watford and St Albans hospitals.

The board at Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) paved the way for the planned redevelopment projects at Watford General and St Albans City hospitals on Thursday by formally approving the strategic outline case produced by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The case will be submitted for consideration by national NHS bodies later this year, while detailed design work will be carried out in tandem as part of the development of the “outline business case”.

This major piece of work will take approximately 18 months to complete.

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The CCG’s decision was welcomed by Katie Fisher, chief executive of the NHS trust, who said: “Our staff are very excited about this decision and the prospect of delivering care for our patients in bright and modern facilities.

“Planning and delivering new hospital buildings takes time but I know from the commitment I’ve seen from the team involved that they will work as fast as they can."

Watford Observer:

In a nod to opposition groups which continue to campaign vociferously for a brand new hospital to be built on a greenfield site in west Hertfordshire, she added: “We hope that the energy shown by local people can be channelled towards working with us to secure the funding and creating the highest quality facilities possible. Unifying behind one plan gives us the best chance of success.”

However the New Hospital Campaign group said the verdict “makes a mockery of the decision making process when it is not truly independent”.

In a written submission to the Hertfordshire and West Essex Sustainability and Transformation Programme, the campaign group said its petition calling for a new hospital, which attracted more than 10,000 signatures, was “treated by the local NHS as though it did not exist”, adding: “If the local NHS persists with its current course they will waste a great deal of scarce public money and ignore clearly expressed public preference. That must be unacceptable.”

Both the trust and the CCG decided against building a new hospital on a greenfield site, stating such a project would cost more and take longer to complete.

Chairman of the Herts Valleys CCG Board, Dr Nicolas Small, said: “Some patient groups - particularly a number from the Dacorum area – have been impassioned in their feedback to us, arguing strongly for a new hospital on a greenfield site. That was very evident in the attendance at our board meeting yesterday.

“What we have said is that our priority and duty is to develop a workable proposal that we feel is realistic and capable of being delivered in a very challenging financial climate.”

Both the local NHS trust and CCG have stated their ambition for as much new build as possible to take place on the two sites.  

A group of health and council experts are working together with patients to look at options for providing health services for Hemel Hempstead residents, including relocating some services from Watford.

Work to develop a similar strategic outline case for the redevelopment of the Hemel Hempstead hospital site is also underway.